Long Hikes and Muscle Building

[allmanbro]

I have had really good success in my first 1 1/2 yrs of body building, especially at age 47. Thanks to HST, this forum and some other routines as well and those fantastic newbie gains..!!

I live in the Rocky Mountains and really enjoy winter hiking, snowshoeing etc. My goal is to try to find the best way to combat the muscle loss that comes from long cardio sessions. I have read quite a bit about cardio while trying to build mass, most of what Ive gathered says to keep the cardio short and intense to keep from burning muscle, which is not what the hikes would be. Intense yes but not short.

What I would like to do for a few months is keep my gym workouts to 2-3 times a week and try to continue building muscle or at least not losing any and probably get a 1-2 hour hike mid week and one long hike on the weekends when possible.

My question is: What would be the best way to combat the effect of long cardio on the muscles. I am thinking that if I keep up on my diet like Ive been and carb up on hiking days, I would be more likely to burn the carbs and not the muscle. I would appreciate any ideas and input on this. Thanks again for a great site and forum!!

 

[Ruthenian]

The issue will be maintaining your diet.  If you are getting enough calories and protein, I wouldn't think you should have a problem from day hikes.  That means taking along a lot of trail mix, energy bars, whatever.  Protein bars and/or powder (mix with powdered milk, water, Hi-C, or whatever) should help in muscle sparing.

The problem is making sure you have enough.  When I used to backpack a lot (before the kids came along), I always lost weight on multi-day hikes.  In retrospect, it is clear I wasn't taking enough calories along.  On day hikes, the problem should be much easier to handle.

I know some folks advocate that walking and hiking actually goes more for the fact ("the fat burning zone&quot, but I haven't looked into this enough to tell whether there is any reality to it.

 

[faz]

if you were doing a higher intensity cardio maybe you would have to worry,but hiking IMO should keep your heartrate at a lower rate so you would burn more fat than sugars,and if you eat before during and after then that should be

 

[quadancer]

Ruthenian has it right. As an oftentime carpenter I tend to burn a lot of cals in the day and have to supplement that with food/and/or powders.
A constant workload is even more calorie burning so if just jerkey, protein bars, nuts or even bacon don't do the trick, you could use weight gainer powder. At least dry it doesn't weigh anything.
The more weight you carry, the more calories it will take to move it, so a backpack is a necessity, as are lightweight supplies. I also find that in hilly terrain, using a light walking stick (a tipped ski pole is awesome) helps a lot as a third leg. You're mostly just "leaning" on it, rather than pushing it.
Man, I miss hunting.